Strawberries should not be growing in the Arctic Circle, and yet here they are

Here is a partial list of vegetables that are increasingly easy to grow in Greenland: Potatoes. Thyme. Peas. Peppers. Tomatoes. Strawberries.

Greenland is not farm country. But the climate here is changing fast enough that chefs and farmers are finding that they can grow produce they never dreamed of before. Reuters reports:

“Things are just growing quicker,” said Kim Ernst, the Danish chef of Roklubben restaurant, nestled by a frozen lake near a former Cold War-era U.S. military base.

“Every year we try new things,” said Ernst, who even managed to grow a handful of strawberries that he served to some surprised Scandinavian royals. “I first came here in 1999 and no-one would have dreamed of doing this. But now the summer days seem warmer, and longer.”

Greenland’s government has even started studying the possibilities of an agricultural export sector, Reuters says. But while “Grown in Greenland” does have a certain dystopian ring to it, there’s no guarantee that climate change will turn Greenland into an Eden teeming with produce. As temperatures have increased in the country, rainfall has also decreased. Maybe people can irrigate with all the melting snow, and we can all eat Arctic strawberries while we slowly drown.